Comments on: In Reversal, Muslims Allowed at Black Eyed Peas Concert in Malaysiahttp://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/in-reversal-muslims-allowed-at-black-eyed-peas-concert-in-malaysia/
New York Times BlogMon, 24 Jan 2011 00:15:24 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gifNYThttp://www.nytimes.com
By: wdefhttp://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/in-reversal-muslims-allowed-at-black-eyed-peas-concert-in-malaysia/#comment-64773
Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:18:30 +0000http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/in-reversal-muslims-allowed-at-black-eyed-peas-concert-in-malaysia/#comment-64773Maybe the promoter was afraid that if they allowed Moslems to attend the show, that some of them would drink, and then the Islamic clerics would pressure the government into banning concerts as ‘evil’. Given the track record of Moslem societies with such things, that wouldn’t be such an unusual thing. It would be like venues in this country that restrict patrons to those 23 and older, which do so because they serve alchohol and are afraid that they might get snagged for accidentally serving underage people (it is not hard for a teen with false id to have fake id showing themselves as 21, but the older the age, the harder it is to fake it. Likewise,if you allowed 18 year olds in there is a likelyhood they may know someone 21 or older who might buy drinks for them; by making the age 23 you limit underage kids passing with fake id (something more would be able to do if the age is 21) and of course you eliminate the buying of drinks for underage kids (the few kids who can pass for 23 would not need anyone to buy drinks for them…).

It is about the real fear of Moslem conservatism that got Moslems banned I suspect, rather then discrimination simply because they were Moslem.